During first corporate, then colonial rule, the hundreds of independent hereditary rulers "maharaja," or "great king," was just one of the Indian titles were gradually stripped of their lands, then their powers, and finally a great many of their spectacular treasures.

The maharaja of Kashmir, who ruled from a palace overlooking the lake, submitted to British dominion, but insisted on one condition: that the occupiers and other non-natives refrain from putting up any fixed buildings in the state.